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Dell EMC PowerFlex Appliance Architecture Overview

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Deployment options overview
Deployment options overview Base configurations and scaling in a hyperconverged deployment Base configurations and scaling in a two-layer deployment

Deployment options overview

  • There are several options for a PowerFlex appliance deployment.

    PowerFlex appliance nodes use PowerFlex to operate storage and tie in workloads. PowerFlex appliance uses these PowerFlex features:

    • Storage Data Client (SDC), which consumes storage from the PowerFlex appliance.
    • Storage Data Server (SDS), which contributes node storage to PowerFlex appliance.
    • PowerFlex Metadata Manager (MDM), which manages the storage blocks and tracks data location across the system.
    • Storage Data Replication (SDR), which enables native asynchronous replication on PowerFlex storage-only nodes.

    PowerFlex enables flexible deployment options by allowing the separation of SDC and SDS components. It addresses data center workload requirements through the following PowerFlex appliance deployment options:

    Deployment type Description
    Hyperconverged

    Compute and storage reside within the same server.

    Two-layer

    Separates compute resources from storage resources, allowing the independent expansion of compute or storage resources.

    Consists of PowerFlex compute-only nodes (supporting the SDC) and PowerFlex storage-only nodes (connected to and managed by the SDS).

    PowerFlex compute-only nodes host end-user applications.

    PowerFlex storage-only nodes contribute storage to the system pool.

    Hybrid hyperconverged

    Consists of PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes, PowerFlex compute-only nodes, and PowerFlex storage-only nodes. Some nodes contribute both compute resources and storage resources (PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes), some contribute only compute resources (PowerFlex compute-only nodes), and some contribute only storage resources (PowerFlex storage-only nodes).

    PowerFlex compute-only nodes

    Consists of PowerFlex compute-only nodes (supporting the SDC) on Microsoft Windows Standard or Datacenter, embedded operating system, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

    PowerFlex compute-only nodes hosts end-user applications.

    PowerFlex storage-only nodes

    Consists of embedded operating system nodes which contribute storage resources to the virtual environment. The back-end traffic shares the same PowerFlex data networks. No SDC components are installed on this node.

    SDR is only supported on PowerFlex storage-only nodes with a dual CPU.

    PowerFlex storage-only nodes shared deployments use the same four PowerFlex data networks for both SDC and SDS communications. Two-layer deployment allows the rebooting of PowerFlex compute-only nodes without PowerFlex ramifications.

    When designing initial deployment or specifying later growth, use PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes. You can add PowerFlex compute-only nodes, or PowerFlex storage-only nodes as needed.

    To control the number of processors or cores, consider separating the compute for the application from the nodes that support storage. This deployment is a pure two-layer deployment. Extra workloads are supported or added using:
    • PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes
    • PowerFlex compute-only nodes
    • PowerFlex storage-only nodes

    When hyperconverged nodes are mixed with PowerFlex compute-only nodes or PowerFlex storage-only nodes, it create a hybrid deployment.